


Why He Fights

by Shoshanna Gold (shoshannagold)



Category: Generation Kill
Genre: Ficlet, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-31
Updated: 2010-05-31
Packaged: 2017-10-14 06:01:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/146150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shoshannagold/pseuds/Shoshanna%20Gold
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Memories of home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Why He Fights

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this as a gift story for golden_horizon, as thanks for customizing some icons for me.

It's hot in Iraq. That's like saying that the moon is round or that the Yankees suck. But it's really fucking hot, and like a good half of his platoon, Walt has given up on wearing anything but skivvies when he's in the tent. He might as well enjoy the feel of air on his skin now - there's a MOPP suit with his name on it headed towards him. But it's not here yet, and they aren't going anywhere anytime soon, so he can just lay on his fart sack and watch the Ray Person show. If there's one thing that he can say for sure about this tour, it's that he's never for one second bored.

Dirty Earl is doing the mail call, and he drops a letter in on Walt's little corner of the tent. He smiles when he sees who it's from, and he can't help it, he sniffs at it. Some of the guys see him and give him a knowing look, like the paper is laced with eau de pussy or some shit like that. But it's nothing like that. It's from his mom, and she stores her writing paper in the same drawer where she keeps candles and Christmas wreaths. She's so disorganized that he thinks Brad would have an aneurysm if he were to ever see her closets, but Walt's grateful for all the days that he found his socks in a kitchen drawer, or his baseball glove in the laundry hamper, because it gives him this scent of home, and for a minute he's not in a hot tent with a dozen half-naked Marines.

He's in the room he grew up in, and in the next room over his mom has found her book - under the table in the laundry room - and has lit one of her favorite candles as she settles in to read it. It's not where he wants to be - not when he's living the dream here - but it's a reminder of why he had the dream in the first place, all the people he left behind so he could help keep them safe.


End file.
